Illumination Entertainment
Background Illumination Entertainment is the production studio of Chris Meledandri, who left Blue Sky Studios in New York as a executive producer from Ice Age to Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! It is a subsidary of Universal Pictures (a Comcast Company on behalf of NBCUniversal). It started in 2007 with character animation & CGI by Mac Guff, which later renamed the division as Illumination Mac Guff for Dr. Suess' The Lorax. So far, their works include eight CGI films (most notably the Despicable Me franchise) and one hybrid. A print logo didn't appear until the first trailer for Despicable Me, and an animated logo was first used there. (July 9th, 2010 - ) Nickname: "Minion(s)" Logo: Over a dark-blue gradient background with a reflective floor, "ILLUMINATION" appears in a tall font, with "ENTERTAINMENT" in a smaller font (but as long as "ILLUMINATION") underneath. While Minions (from the Despicable Me franchise) do appear in the logo, their actions vary by movie: *''Despicable Me'': From the right side of the screen, on a dark background, a short, one-eyed Minion peeks out from the right side of the screen, anxiously greeting the audience. Then, all of a sudden, the text fades in quickly behind him, and glows, syncing with the music. This causes him to get frightened, who struggles to frantically run around, stands, suddenly falls over and exits the screen to the right. *''HOP''/''Phil's Dance Party'': The text is behind the Minion in the center. After the little while, one Minion wearing bunny ears and a cotton bunny tail is prancing in from the left to the right while carrying an Easter basket and tossing confetti, while a minion in the center observes in confusion. The bunny one shows off his costume, but the other is not amused. *''Dr. Seuss' The Lorax'': The text is behind a Truffula Tree and two Minions. One starts up a chainsaw, and begins to cut down the tree. Suddenly, the tree shakes and a bear, which is eating Truffula berries, drops in, smashing him, A bear resumes eating them, as the other slowly backs away nervously. *''Despicable Me 2'': The text, which glows slightly at one point, is behind two minions. The one-eyed one sings "TA-DAAA!", then the two-eyed one shoves him aside and also sings "TA-DAAA!". The one-eyed one then shoves him and sings "TA-DAAA!" once again, and then they then start yelling "TA-DAAA!" at each other and start pushing and shoving until the one-eyed one shoves the other off-screen, and triumphantly yells "TA-DAAA!". He then chimes "TA-DAA!", causing the other to mumble in frustration while glancing out at the audience. *''Minions'': The text is behind five Minions in the center. The others watch the center one, which is continuing to sing the holding note from the preceeding Universal logo. He finally runs out of breath and falls flat on his face, then weakly holds out a hand for the others to lift him up, but quickly puts it back down as the others exchange glances. *''The Secret Life of Pets'' (Prototype): A minion is seen teasing a Beagle puppy by pretending to throw a squeaky ball. He continues until a group of dogs (consisting of a Scottish Terrier, a Dachshund, a Boston Terrier, a Dalmatian and a German Shepherd) comes in, and the German Shepherd catches the Minion in the act with a bark. Realizing that he's in big trouble, the Minion then throws the ball, allowing the puppy to chase it, but nevertheless the dogs chase the Minion offscreen. Peanut chases after them. *Despicable Me 2 (NBC airing) and The Secret Life of Pets: Bob the Minion walks in from the right, scatting a tune. After a little while, the text "MIN" and "ION" turns on and flickers briefly, while the light above the "I" in "MIN" glows in. The rest of the text, "ILLU" and "AT" in "ILLUMINATION", along with "ENTERTAINMENT", turn on the same way as "MIN" and "ION". Bob gets excited, shouts "Illumination!" twice, and squees. *''Sing'': Four Minions are seen, with one of them is Bob. The tall one blows a harmonica then sings "Illumination" and the other minions join as the chorus, whilst raising their arms in the air. The one on the left screams "ILLUMINATION!!" with a crazy look, and holds it for so long, the "MIN" and "ION in "ILLUMINATION" lose power and turn off. He stops and looks at the text. He looks at the screen, and says "Whoops!" as the other minions stare in disappointment. *''Despicable Me 3'': Three minions are seen, with the tall one holding a script, a short one holding a flower in a vase and another short one holding a wooden hammer. The tall one clears his throat and tries to say "Illumination", but the short one knocks him out with a vase. He tries to do the same, but the second short one hits him with a hammer. Bob comes by with the fart gun (from the first two movies). The other minion successfully says the name, and then questions the fart gun, to which Bob sprays gas (which is green as opposed to brown). The second short one faints in disgust. Bob then says "ILLUMINATION!" like in The Secret Life of Pets version and chuckles. The second fallen short one farts on Bob and he shakes his hand in disgust. *''Dr. Seuss' The Grinch'': Unlike other versions, it abruptly cuts in from black. Bob is waving a sparkler and says, "Illumination," then Snowball (from The Secret Life of Pets) comes down and says, "YEAH! ILLUMINATION!" Firework fountains light up, which scares Bob. The water sprinklers go off, which douse the fountains, and Bob walks up to Snowball, petting him and giving him the sparkler. The text then glows to white and dims to the movie's opening shot.﻿ *The Secret Life of Pets 2: This is the first variant to not feature Bob since Minions. A ball bounces above the Illumination logo. Then a group of dogs being leashed by a minion runs to it and plays with it. The minion anxiously looks at the audience until the ball bounces off, causing the dogs to run at it while the minion shouts out "ILLUMINATION!" until they're off-screen.﻿ *Minions: The Rise of Gru: TBA Variants: *Sometimes, the movie versions is shortened on trailers & TV spots. *Sometimes, the Minion(s) is absent on some trailers & TV spots. *On the mini movies (Beginning with Mower Minions), The Secret Life of Pets version is used and is already formed & still without Bob. *Beginning with the second trailer for Despicable Me 3, "ILLUMINATION" is now slightly shorter in height and "ENTERTAINMENT" is deleted. *Some TV spots has the flickering of the letters of "ILLUMINATION". Custom Promotional Variants: *On the first two trailers for HOP, the text is already-formed and the Minion (Same as the DM version) peeks in from the right. *On five TV spots for Sing, there are three Minions in the center. *On the teaser trailer for The Grinch, The text is off. Bob turns a flashlight on as if he's saying Illumination in that manner, while laughing maniacally after. The text suddenly turns on and he runs off in fear. *On the theatrical trailer for The Grinch, Carl blows a party horn which annoys Kevin. He notices, and when Carl blows it again, Kevin pulls it, attacking him with his elbow. The text is seen above, then goes to the center of the screen, with Bob saying "Illumination!" On the trailer and the international trailers for The Grinch and The Secret Life of Pets 2, ''Same as the variation from "The Secret Life of Pets", but without "ENTERTAINMENT". *On the second theatrical trailer for ''The Grinch, Bob says "Illumination" while raising his hands and his tongue sticking out to taste the snow, with Kevin and Stuart shaking their sleigh bells while looking depressed. Also, the minions wear their santa hats with red overalls and the text, even the floor, is covered in snow. FX/SFX: CGI, done at Illumination Mac Guff, Paris. Music/Sounds: Just the Minion(s) doing their thing, along with various sound effects. *On the Despicable Me version, it has an orchestrated 3-note tune, similiar to Viacom's "Wigga-Wigga" logo music. *Trailers/TV spots had their music playing over, sometimes with sounds. *On the Phil's Dance Party version, the tail end of the 2012 Universal logo music is heard when it fades in. *On The Lorax version, the orchestra starts warming up when the logo fades out, which leads to the start of the feature. *The mini-movie version is silent. *The DM3 version has the movie's opening theme over it. Availability: Seen on the aforementioned films. The Phil's Dance Party version is only seen on that short, which appears on the 2011 Blu-Ray of HOP, but it and the preceding Universal logo variant were cut from DVD collections containing that short. The Secret Life of Pets version debuted on the NBC broadcast of Despicable Me 2, inexplicably plastering its version. Scare Factor: None. Category:Animation studio Category:Family and Animation Category:Comcast Category:NBCUniversal Category:Illumination Entertainment